Online, China Looks for Its Mandela

Nelson Mandela’s legacy in the world’s most populous country is complex. Once celebrated by the Chinese Communist Party as an icon of the struggle against imperialism, he has in more recent decades been adopted by the party’s critics as a model of anti-authoritarian resistance.

Both strains of thought were on display Friday morning, as Chinese officials, media and Internet users poured out tributes in reaction to news of the former South African leader’s death at the age of 95.

“Mandela has gone far away, but he has truly had massive resonance in all manner of countries with all manner of systems,” liberal-leaning real estate mogul Ren Zhiqiang wrote on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging service. “It’s because Mandela’s life is a symbol of the pursuit of freedom, fairness and peace.”

“The greatness of a leader depends not on how he takes the stage, but how he leaves it. The greatness of a revolution depends not on how it starts, but on how it ends,” wrote Chinese Central Television commentator Zhou Qing’an. “The connection he drew between struggle and tolerance will always live on in this world.”

China’s Foreign Ministry called Mr. Mandela an “old friend of China” and offered condolences to the people and government of South Africa. Chinese president Xi Jinping said the Chinese people would “always remember his contributions to China-South Africa relations and human progress.”

Mr. Mandela was often held up as a fellow traveler in the fight against imperialism on Chinese state television in the 1980s — an image the state-run Xinhua news agency evoked again on Friday. In a post on its official Sina Weibo feed, Xinhua claimed the South African leader had requested a copy of Mao Zedong’s Little Red Book while in prison, “which he read earnestly and in which he found motivation for resistance.”

He is perhaps better known to younger Chinese as the inspiration behind “The Glorious Years,” a rock anthem by popular Hong Kong band Beyond that extolled his ability “to hold tight to freedom amid the wind and rain.”

In memory of Mr. Mandela, a number of Weibo users posted links to the song. One post containing the lyrics to the song was later deleted.

The leader’s death prompted a debate among liberal social media users about whether a Chinese Mandela figure could lead the country out from under the shadow of the current political system.

“China doesn’t have segregation by race, but it does have segregation by privilege,” wrote a political cartoonist known as Jicama Brother. “China needs a Mandela who leads the grassroots to fight for the rights enjoyed only by the privileged class.”

“China needs rule of law, but it needs someone like Mandela more,” wrote lawyer Zhu Dingwei.

Others were less certain that a Chinese Mandela would succeed, arguing that the South African political system, despite its flaws, came with a built-in respect for rule of law that China doesn’t have.

Nelson Mandela revisited his prison cell on Robben Island, where he spent eighteen of his twenty-seven years in prison, 1994. See more photos.

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“Besides his persistence, belief and perseverance, another thing that allowed Mandela to achieve greatness was that all the enemies he encountered had bottom lines,” wrote Ma Yong, a historian with the state-sponsored Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “Just imagine, he was able to walk out of the prison in good condition without the dishonor of having to confess to any crimes or mistakes. In a lot of countries, that’s simply inconceivable.”

Others argued it was more important for China to find its own F.W. de Klerk, the last president of apartheid-era South Africa who shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with Mr. Mandela. “Without [de Klerk], we might not have the Mandela of today,” wrote journalist Liu Xiangnan.

Mr. Mandela visited China in 1992 after his release from prison and came back for an first official visit as president of South Africa in 1999. A new translation of his autobiography, “Long Walk To Freedom,” was published by the Guangxi Normal University Press in November.

His death was widely covered by Chinese state media, leading the midday news on China Central Television on Friday.

Not mentioned in any of the discussion in official media or on Chinese social media sites was activist and writer Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese person most often compared to the South African leader. The Chinese Nobel Peace laureate was sentenced to 11 years in prison for subversion in 2009 following his detention as lead author of Charter 08, a manifesto that called for freedom of speech and multi-party elections.

“The severe punishment imposed on Liu made him more than a central spokesman for human rights. Practically overnight, he became the very symbol both in China and internationally of the non-violent struggle for such rights in China,” Norwegian Nobel committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland, said of Mr. Liu before awarding Mr. Liu’s Peace Prize to an empty chair in Oslo City Hall in 2010. “We can say the Liu reminds us of Nelson Mandela.”

Antiapartheid icon Nelson Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president after serving decades in prison, has died at age 95, confirms South African President Jacob Zuma.

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He was born Rolihlahla Mandela in the village of Mvezo, Transkei, South Africa, the son of Henry Mandela, chief counselor to Thembuland's acting paramount chief.
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Nelson Mandela smiled as he announced his retirement from public life at the offices of his foundation in Johannesburg, South Africa, in June 2004. He joked about still keeping a punishing schedule, despite having retired from active politics in 1999.
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Mr. Mandela, second from back, and others walked to a room where their treason trial was being held in 1956. All of the defendants were found not guilty in 1961. Just three years later, Mr. Mandela was convicted of plotting to overthrow the government and sentenced to life in prison.
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After his election, President Mandela revisited the prison cell on Robben Island, where he spent 18 years.
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Antiapartheid leader and African National Congress member Mr. Mandela and his wife, Winnie, raised their fists as Mr. Mandela was released from Victor Verster prison on Feb. 11, 1990, in Paarl, South Africa.
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Mr. Mandela walked with his daughter, Zindzi, on her wedding day in Soweto, South Africa, in October 1992. She is one of Mr. Mandela's two daughters with Winnie.
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Mr. Mandela and South African President Frederik Willem de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in 1993 for their work in the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime.
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Thousands of supporters gathered to hear Mr. Mandela, president of the ANC, speak at a rally in Mmabatho, South Africa, in March 1994.
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Mr. Mandela greeted his young supporters in a township outside Durban, South Africa, in April 1994. Soon after, South Africans voted in their country's first democratic and multiracial general elections.
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ANC supporters listened to Mr. Mandela speak at a rally in Mmabatho in March 1994. That May, Parliament elected him as South Africa's first black president.
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President Mandela congratulated Springbok team skipper François Pienaar for his team winning the Rugby Word Cup in Johannesburg in 1995.
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President Mandela and President Bill Clinton peered through the bars of a cell on South Africa's Robben Island, where Mr. Mandela served part of his prison sentence.
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Mr. Mandela raised the hand of newly sworn-in South African President Thabo Mbeki, his successor, at an inauguration ceremony in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1999.
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Mr. Mandela lifted a trophy in Zurich in 2004 after it was announced that South Africa would host the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
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Mr. Mandela's other daughter with Winnie, Zenani Dlamini, far left, lighted a cake as relatives gathered around to celebrate Mr. Mandela's 92nd birthday on July 18, 2010, in Johannesburg. He was married three times and fathered six children.
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Pope John Paul II and South African President Nelson Mandela on Sept. 16, 1995 at the presidential guest house in Pretoria.
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